Cincinnati’s defense came up with two interceptions, held the Seahawks to a field goal with a stop at the goal line and then forced a pair of turnover-on-downs inside the 10-yard line the final two drives. Anarumo said he wants to see more consistency after the bye. The grittiness has always been there and is one big reason to believe in the Bengals, who will look to build on a 3-3 start that now includes two straight wins.
“I just like our grit,” Anarumo said. “I like our determination. You should hear them on the sideline: ‘Just put the ball down. Let’s go. Bell’s ringing again, we’re going out. Let’s go.’ It’s never anything other than that. ‘Let’s go get another stop. Let’s go get another stop.’ … It makes me proud to be their coach when they communicate like that to each other, and they do a great job.”
Anarumo has always said he cares more about the number of points allowed than how many yards his defense gives up. That “bend, don’t break” mentality hasn’t shown as consistently as he would like this season, but seeing it against “a really good team” like Seattle gives the Bengals confidence they are heading in the right direction.
The Seahawks’ only touchdown came on the first drive, but the defense picked up after that. Mike Hilton’s third-quarter pick happened at the 3-yard line, Cam Taylor-Britt broke up a pass at the goal line before Seattle’s field goal and pressure on quarterback Geno Smith enabled the defense to get the two other redzone stops.
“It’s something that we’ve kind of used and has been our calling card and it’s gotta continue that way,” Anarumo said of the redzone stops. “And we’re taking the ball away too and we’re sacking the quarterback. So anytime you can do all those three things, … it’s a good day.”
Cincinnati lost its first two games, then stumbled after the first win with a disappointing showing at Tennessee in Week 4. Missed tackles were an issue in all three losses, but the Bengals saw a little progress in that regard in a win at Arizona in Week 5 and it was much better Sunday.
The Bengals are at their best, though, when the pass rushers are getting pressure on the quarterback and the coverage in the back end good enough to buy them time to get there. Defensive tackle BJ Hill, who shares the team lead with 10 quarterback hits, said it took some time for the defense to get on the same page with communication and chemistry after three big changes in the secondary, but now Cincinnati is in a good place.
“It was just trying to get to know each other, communicate with each other, so it’s just a little different, but now I feel like I think we found it,” Hill said. “I feel like we’re gonna make a big jump from now.”
Hill said the ability to get to the quarterback comes from all four defensive linemen rushing together. That’s why Anarumo said the Bengals were able to get those last two redzone stops Sunday.
After the Bengals got the first turnover on downs and the offense went three-and-out, Anarumo saw his starting four guys up front were looking gassed but he gathered them together and told them he needed them on the field to finish the game. Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard had gotten sacks to end the previous drive, and DJ Reader came up with a stop on second down from the Bengals 11-yard line before two incomplete passes ended the game. Hill hit Smith on the fourth-down attempt.
“I just walked over to ‘em and said, I’m not putting anybody else out there but you four and I want you four to go win the game for us,” Anarumo said. “And, you know, they just put their helmets on and said, let’s go. And that’s what they did. They wrecked the game at the end of the game for us.”
Anarumo said he will have to manage the snap counts better going forward. The four starting defensive linemen all played 49 snaps or more (of 74 on defense) Sunday, but he knew he could push their playing time with the bye coming up.
The Bengals still have 11 games to go after this week’s bye, beginning with two tough matchups against San Francisco (Oct. 29 on the road) and Buffalo (Nov. 5 at home).
“We knew we had the bye coming up, so we were gonna kind of empty their tanks a little bit, but you know, I think DJ (Reader) played 51 snaps —it’s just too many, so we’ll try to manage that better as we go forward now with the long stretch coming up.”
NEXT GAME
Sunday, Oct. 29
Bengals at 49ers, 4:25 p.m., CBS, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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